Top 5 things not to do while driving

Snapshot: Accidents happen due to all sorts of reasons, mostly they are due to human errors. In this article, we have listed top 5 common mistakes that you should not do while driving, things that should keep you out of harm's way.

In addition to not observing road signs, accidents happen due to a lot of other reasons, the most common of them all are related to drivers’ behaviour and not being well-versed with the driving rules. We have listed the common mistakes that you should not do or do while driving to prevent accidents.

Not using side view mirrors

Even entry-level cars come equipped with side-view mirrors these days. While the car’s inside rear view mirror provide a good field of view, it does not do enough to eliminate blind spots. A complete field of rear view can only be formed by using all three mirrors. Not using side view mirrors therefore causes a lot of accidents and is one of the common mistakes all drivers do. To prevent them happening, one should try and use all mirrors.

Not Anticipating traffic / cars

It’s common habit to drive fast on roads when there’s less traffic in sight. One does it all the more while driving on a road at an ungodly hour thinking that no one would be on road. One fails to anticipate this even while crossing junctions and round about. Therefore, most accidents that occur at night or in early mornings are at junctions and are a result of driver negligence that fail to anticipate oncoming traffic.

​Not exercising caution while driving in slippery conditions

During rains, the overall visibility reduces which adversely affects our reaction time. If you live in an area where it rains or snows pretty frequently, then from experience you would know that the stopping distance in slippery conditions reduces drastically. Therefore, you should maintain more distance from the car that you are following. In case the car’s not equipped with ABS and other driver aids like ESP (Electronic Safety Program) etc. it becomes all the more easy to lose control over slippery surfaces.

Driving without indicators

A non-functioning indicator signal of a car can attract fine. But that's not the only reason why you should use them and keep them in working condition. Indicators / turn signals are the most basic form of communication that cars have with other drivers on the road. They communicate our intention to them and help us understand their intention and therefore are an integral form of communicating means besides horn, brake light etc. Not using them or driving a car with non-functioning indicators can be fatal. It’s important that we use them and avoid making this common mistake and prevent accidents.

Driving while fatigued

We live in an increasingly fast paced world where people keep working even though they might feel fatigued. To cover long distances, we deprive ourselves of a good sleep and start our highway journeys at wee hours to avoid the traffic and reach our destination to save time. All this affects our driving adversely and is the most dangerous of all. Fatigued drivers are prone to fall asleep while at the steering.